RUSSIALINK RBTH: “Informal economy in Russia grows to record levels. The informal economy is being helped by economic decline, on the one hand, and the growth of technologies and Internet-markets for work and part-time work, on the other.”

“In 2016, employment in the informal sector of Russia’s economy set a record level for the last 10 years, reports Rosstat, the Russian Statistics Agency (the information was published (in Russian) by the RBC business daily in mid-April).  Rosstat believes that the informal employment category consists of those people who work in enterprises that are not registered as a legal entity, that is, the self-employed, farmers, individual entrepreneurs, and people whom they hire. Family members who help the family business or a business belonging to a relative are also included. The informal economy employed 15.4 million people in 2016. This is 21.2 percent of the total number of people employed in Russia. The informal sector has been growing rapidly since 2011 and in this period has increased by four million people, according to RBC’s calculations, which are based on Rosstat’s statistics. …”